The Commission published today its report on the development of the European Migration Network (EMN), a Commission-led network with national contact points in each Member States, as well as Norway. The purpose of the EMN is to provide up-to-date, objective, reliable and comparable information on migration and asylum, with a view to supporting policymaking in the European Union in these areas, as well as informing the wider public. Four years after its formal creation, the report takes stock of the progress made and considers how the network should evolve, including in the context of the next multiannual financial framework beyond 2013.

The European Migration Network has proven its worth in supporting evidence-based policymaking through its many activities, ranging from contributing to the Annual Report on Immigration and Asylum (IP/12/552), to thematic based studies on topics such as economic migration (IP/11/911) and family reunification (SPEECH/12/408); to quickly gathering information on topics of specific short-term need by policymakers; to developing a multilingual glossary based on EU law; and producing regular bulletins summarising latest policy developments and statistics.

To ensure that the EMN continues to meet the needs and expectations of policymakers in particular, but also the wider public, the report also identifies possible future developments. For instance, relations with EU agencies, such as Frontex or the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) could be enhanced.

Promoting synergies between the EMN and Frontex could potentially close the gap between border management considerations and socio-economic considerations by bringing together a wide range of experts with different but complementary specialisations.

Similarly, closer collaboration between the EMN and EASO could also increase the capacity of both bodies for analysing the situation of asylum in the EU. For example the EMN and EASO could jointly undertake a study on an asylum-related topic addressing different but complementary components.